Gamification in nutrition education: the impact and the acceptance of digital game-based intervention for improving nutritional habits

Abstract

As school-based nutrition education interventions have become increasingly popular in recent years, they have proven effective in raising children awareness and responsibility toward good eating habits as well as improving their knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The aim of this work is to evaluate whether a gamification approach, using a digital application developed in AdobeXD, could be an appropriate strategy for increasing attention span toward nutrition education messages when compared to a classical didactic approach. The study involved 126 children aged 7 to 8 years, divided into control group (lesson with nutrition expert supported by slides) and intervention group (interactive lesson via application). A questionnaire was then administered to all participants to assess the knowledge they gained regarding basic nutrition education concepts. An additional questionnaire was distributed to the intervention group for the prototype digital evaluation based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework. The results show that the digital application has the potential to be an effective tool for producing significant improvements in nutrition knowledge. The greater rating on the usefulness of the content, rather than on other intrinsic features of the prototype, demonstrates that the use of a digital approach can play a key role in capturing new concepts of nutrition education.